This magnificent American fowl, like the more domestic weathercock, may
often be seen wheeling through the air on the approach of a storm, and
exhibits unmistakable signs of exultation when it is going to thunder.
It is not a bird of song, but is unsurpassed as a screamer. To the
common Kite, a plebeian member of the genus, has been ascribed an
attribute which in fact belongs exclusively to this Banner species. The
Kite, according to Dr. FRANKLIN, draws the lightning from the clouds,
but this, in reality, is the proud prerogative of the Great American
Eagle, the noblest of the falcon tribe, which may often be seen with a
sheaf of flashes in its talons, rushing through the skies as a lightning
express. It feeds on all the inferior birds, but its principal food is
the American Bunting, which it bears fluttering aloft in its powerful
mandibles. Strange to say, its feats with the electric fluid, and its
fondness for the Bunting, have not been noticed by any of the great
naturalists; but as innumerable artists have depicted the bird in the
very act of scattering the one and carrying off the other, the omission
is not, practically, of the slightest consequence.

The habitat of the Birdofreedom was originally limited to about twelve
degrees of latitude, but being like the Imperial Eagle of Italy (now
extinct,) given to Roam, it has within the last fifty years greatly
enlarged the area of its feeding grounds. It is now found as far North
as the Border of the Arctic Sea, where it cultivates amicable relations
with the hyperborean humming-bird, and Professor GRANT is at present
attempting to naturalize it in Saint Domingo. The time is probably not
far distant when it will prune its morning wing on the upper pole, and
go to roost on the equator. It is, upon the whole, a grasping bird, and
inspires the weaker tribes with terror; yet, notwithstanding its
fierceness, it perches familiarly on the Arms of the American people.